Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) has announced that Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company Limited (HKSCC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of HKEx, will introduce several improvements to its money settlement services and nominee services on 8 August this year.

Fund transfers to HKSCC through RTGS system

Participants remitting cash prepayments, intra-day marks* and subscription monies to HKSCC will be able to execute their transactions through the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system of the Clearing House Automated Transfer System, or CHATS, operated by Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Limited.  The existing service fee of $100 per transaction will not apply to cash prepayments made through this new automated mechanism.

Extended deadlines for corporate action instructions

The deadline for Participants of the Central Clearing and Settlement System (CCASS) to submit corporate action instructions that require subscription payments will be extended from 4:15 pm one day before the last acceptance day as imposed by the issuer to 11:00 am on the last acceptance day. For other corporate actions, the submission deadline for participants will generally be extended from 3:45 pm one day before the last acceptance day to 12:00 noon on the last acceptance day.  Participants will also be able to input corporate action instructions starting from 8:00 am. The present start time is 10:00 am.

Reduced handling charges for scrip fee concessions

The procedures for processing scrip fee concession applications for transfers between two Participants in respect of a securities portfolio belonging to the same investor will be streamlined and the handling charge will be reduced from 10 per cent of concession granted (with a minimum of $10,000) to a flat fee of $1,000 per application.

"These changes reflect our latest effort in improving our services to meet the needs of our customers and reducing our fees at the same time." said Stewart Shing, HKEx's Head of Clearing. "We are continuously upgrading our systems to provide value added services to the market."

* Funds to cover market risk exposure of HKSCC as a result of unfavourable price fluctuations of the unsettled stock positions.